The Dark Within the Light
by blackrosepoison
Summary: It started as your everyday, run-of-the-mill murder. But one phone call can destroy a lot more than just a case. Beckett's working on a case and when she calls Castle, Alexis answers. In the other room. With the body. Where she found the phone. Hidden.
1. Chapter 1

**SO I didn't have much to do in study hall today and earlier was completely inspired with this idea. It's probably way overused, but mine has a twist! It's only gonna be like 5 or 6 chapters long, unless anyone WANTS it to be longer, but I'm cool with either way! The first part starts off in third person, but after the three pound signs, switches to Beckett's POV. You'll know when.**

** Anyway, ENJOY!**

**THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REVISED. THERE'S NO NEED TO READ IT AGAIN IF YOU'VE ALREADY READ IT ONCE. I JUST NEEDED TO CLEAR SOMETHING UP. Just saying...**

Kate Beckett, punctual as ever, bent underneath the yellow, police tape, letting it snap back into place as leaves blew across the previously deserted lawn. The wind gusted across her pale face, but Kate hastily pushed the brunette strands dancing around her eyes behind her ears. Quickly, she strode across the crunchy, sooty grass of the front lawn of a standard, suburban house, her heels click-clacking up the sidewalk.

She took note of the house before her; the blackened windows, the burnt out hole in the roof, and the singed wood strewn about the yard. Glass sprinkled the concrete walkway up to the house and crunched beneath her feet as sirens continued to wail in the background. Parents quietly shushed their on looking children as they screamed and pointed, wanting to get a closer look at the big, red trucks and the long, snaking fire hoses still dripping with water, but unfortunately being packed away.

Kate climbed the few steps up to the decaying, wood porch and entered the crippled home, immediately coughing in the lingering smoke.

The yellow, caution tape wafted in the breeze and singed leaves flew over the crowd, occasionally landing on the random spectator.

No one noticed the lone figure in the crowd, donning a simple brown hat and an overly cliché, tan trench coat simply staring at the house and not hushing a shrieking child.

# # #

I suppressed the urge to cough upon entering the back room on the second floor. Shoving my face into my elbow, I quickly ducked in to the blackened room where Laney and Alexis sat in the back corner, hunched over a lump of something black.

"Is this supposed to be our victim?" I asked, skeptical she was testing something that wasn't in fact dead.

"Unfortunately," Lanie replied, looking up. "It's male and I'm guessing over the age of thirty, but as you can see," she gestured to the mutilated corpse, "I can't be sure until we get him back to the lab."

I gazed at the dark form on the floor. It was so darkened, shriveled, and ashen it was nearly impossible to tell the shape had once ever been even remotely human. "What happened? He's completely unrecognizable!" I said, in shock.

"Burned to death," said Alexis, glancing up from a mountain of papers.

"He wasn't killed before the fire?"

"Nope," she said. "Firefighters found him back here in this study underneath the window, probably trying to escape, but the windows are sealed shut. The poor guy didn't even have a chance."

I glanced over at the now blown out window, jagged glass protruding from the frame. "Why not just use the door?" I asked, muddled.

"It was locked. Firefighters had to kick it down just to get in here and when they did they found," Alexis gestured to the corpse, "our victim, clutching this." She handed me a piece of blackened paper.

I quickly perused the withering paper, but it was unreadable. "Wonder what was written on here that was worth dying for," I thought aloud. "And this is the only victim?"

"Yeah, that we've found," Lanie answered, picking at the tattered remains of the victim's clothes.

I bent down next to the pair, peering at what was left of the man. "He's completely disfigured; hardly even a mark on the ground."

"There's not much left to him that's for sure," Lanie said. "When we got here the fire chief said it was one of the hottest fires he'd ever seen; white flames and nearly 3000 degrees. It took fire crews almost 6 hours of spraying water before the fire finally died out and even then the house was too hot to enter for another half hour or so."

Lanie stood and crossed the room, leaving Alexis behind to finish filling out papers. I followed her out of the room and into the hallway.

"Do we know anything about the victim?" I asked her.

"We know no one lived here," Esposito said, reaching the top of the stairs, Ryan in tow. "No one has for years. Neighbors said the last person to live in this house moved out over 27 years ago."

"Why? Was there something wrong with the house?" I asked.

He continued. "An old woman a few houses down said there was a murder here back in '83. A whole family, cut to bits and scattered about the house. A girl out walking her dog discovered the bodies. Or, what was left of them, I should say."

"Pull the files on the case and read them over, maybe try and find that girl and see what she remembers," I said.

"You think there's a connection?" Ryan asked, walking down the hall and into the back room.

"No. But if there is, I want to know," I said.

"And Lanie, can you order dental records so we can try and ID our victim?"

"Already done," she replied.

"Good, thanks."

I trailed after Esposito and Ryan as they entered the room and made a beeline for the corpse. "Man, there is nothing left of this guy!" Esposito exclained.

I smacked him on the arm. "Don't be so rude!"

"The guy's dead what's he gonna do, insult me back?"

"Anyway!" Ryan cut in, "Back to the case, it looks like the guy had some money."

"What makes you say that," I said, crouching to join him next to the body.

"Look at the clothes," he said.

"Where? There burned to pieces."

"But not completely. Look at what _is _left. Only high quality material would have lasted through a fire like this. Expensive material. And the watch on his wrist. That's not your ordinary plastic, pull out of a cereal box watch. It's a nice one."

As Esposito turned to give him a look, I bent down an examined the watch. He was right. It was tarnished and rusting, but still there. That was enough to prove it was worth money. And a lot.

"Hey, look!" Esposito suddenly shouted, snapping me out of my reverie. "The guys not wearing any shoes."

I glanced over and sure enough, our guy had no shoes. "That's funny," I muttered to myself.

"I bet wherever the shoes are will gives us a clue about our killer," Alexis said, not looking up from her paperwork.

"She's right," said Ryan. "Are you sure you're the spawn of Castle?"

"I question it every day," she said laughing.

"Speaking of which," I said, "this case is getting a little bit too weird for my taste. I'm calling him down here."

I walked out of the back room and into the hall to get away from the noise as I pulled my phone out of my jacket, dialing Castle's number. Lanie stood at the top of the steps, leaning over the railing and listening in on the home investigators conversation.

"What are they saying?" I asked, waiting for the dull buzz that meant the phone was ringing.

"They think it was arson. Looks like ground zero was in what's left of the living room."

The phone began to ring.

"Hmmm," I muttered.

"If I go, it will not be by fire that's for sure," Lanie murmured mainly to herself. "I can't imagine anything worse than watching the flames just creeping closer and closer…"

Someone picked up on the seventh ring.

"Hello…?" A woman asked, sounding confused.

_Not Castle. _My heart immediately shot into my stomach and began hammering away."Hello," I began, trying to calm myself, "This is Detective Kate Beckett calling on behalf of the NYPD, may I speak with Richard Castle?"

Lanie shot me a confused look. I mouthed the words 'I don't know' and waited for the woman to answer. _Probably just the wrong number._

_Except it was on speed dial._ I mentally groaned, growing impatient waiting for the women to respond.

Just as I was about to ask if the woman had hung up, there was dull thump and the sound of static buzzed in my ear. Then the phone clicked off, ending the call.

"Hang up on you?" Laney asked, not sounding overly surprised.

"I'm not entirely sure," I said, beyond confused.

There was a muffled 'Oh shit' and a scream suddenly blasted from the study. I immediately shoved the phone back into my pocket as Laney and I both sprinted down the hall and into the back room.

The first thing I saw was Esposito and Ryan kneeling on the floor next to the body and Alexis, her bright red hair just barely poking out from behind the pair. "What's wrong?" I snapped.

Slowly, Ryan and Esposito parted, emotionless looks gracing both of their faces and I gasped. Alexis sat kneeling over the body, her hands resting on his ashy chest (hitting it ever couple of seconds), and uncontrollably sobbing, undistinguishable words falling from her mouth.

Ryan snatched something off the rotting, wood floor and slowly walked up to me, leaving Esposito behind, rubbing Alexis' back while gently trying to yank her off the victims remains.

I looked him-for lack of better term-dead in the eye, trying to keep a straight face. "Ryan, what's going on?"

"After you went to call Castle," he started, taking a deep breath, "we heard a noise coming from inside that file cabinet over there." He gestured behind himself to the cabinet. "It must be fireproof or something, surviving the fire like that. Inside we found the victim's shoes and… and this I-phone." He raised his hand to show me the phone as everything began to fall into place. The women's voice, Alexis crying, Esposito and Ryan's uncharacteristically long faces. "We figured it would be a family member or something so Alexis answered it. We told her to put it on speaker phone in case she didn't know what to say and when she answered…" he paused.

My heart pounded in my chest and suddenly a sheer, layer of sweat coated my body, my hands shaking inside the pockets of my coat. "What?" I yelled, my voice quaking.

He looked down at floor, suddenly becoming extremely interested in his shoes. "You were on the other line," he mumbled.

Dark shadows swirled around the edges of my visions and my head churned. I slowly pulled my hands out of my coat pockets and brought them to my forehead.

I vaguely here Laney repeatedly calling my name, but the noise was soon overwhelmed by the white noise that roared in my ears.

"Kate? Kate!" she yelled, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Kate, we can't know for sure!" Pushing her hand away, I stumbled closer to Alexis as Esposito desperately tried to pry her off her father's crumbling chest, tears streaming down her face.

I gracelessly shoved Esposito to the side, seeing as his attempts to pull Alexis off the body were failing, he landing with a dull thump on the floor. I grabbed Alexis' shoulders, shaking her and pulling her back off the body.

"Alexis, honey, I need you to listen to me, back away from-"

I didn't even see her hand come up to smack my face away. It wasn't so much of a slap more than an attempt to shove my face back. Either way, I ended up landing on my butt with my back against the wall.

I slowly stood, using the wall as a support. My vision was still clouded, but I _was _going to get a grip on myself.

Lanie was suddenly in front of me. "Kate, Kate?"

I tried to focus on her face, but the room was spinning. "Kate," her voice was warped. "Go home. You need to leave."

"No… staying…"

I pushed off the wall and began to stride across the room, no particular goal in mind, but stopped about halfway through, spinning to glance at Alexis again. She clutched the victims chest, her face resting on his burned chest.

"Kate?" Lanie asked, sounding worried.

Was the ground getting closer?

"I think… I think I needa go… sit down…" I slurred.

"Kate!" Lanie yelled.

I felt the wind rush through my hair and the hard wood slam against my face, but all I heard was the finally intelligible word Alexis managed to belt out as Ryan and Esposito held onto each of her arms to keep her from diving onto the body again.

"DAD!"

**Would I really be so mean to kill off our favorite author/volunteer detective? On a normal day, probably. But I got lots of sleep last night and am in a relatively good mood today. So maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Review and find out!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow! SO many favorites and alerts and what not, but only one review? I know there are about 4 billion of you out there reading this, my overflowing inbox was proof enough, so how about reviews this time! Shout out to hug-me who did review! You are my life. So here's the next chapter. Let me know whatcha think! Oh and also it's 3rd person until the three pound signs again. I think I'm gonna do that with each chapter…**

Kate Beckett and Alexis Castle sat in anxious silence in the back seat of Detective Ryan and Esposito's cruiser as it quickly sped down the highway (much above the speed limit) and back to the precinct, sirens blaring. The two men weren't supposed to use their sirens unless there was an emergency, like for instance a car chase, and many would consider the current situation to be non-threatening and definitely not significant. But to any of the four people sitting in that cop car, this was a catastrophe beyond all standards.

The car screeched to a stop, throwing each of its four, worried passengers forward, and scratching several fresh tire marks into the highway as the afternoon rush began to kick in. Esposito, who was driving, spewed more than a few carefully chosen and colorful words directed towards the traffic jam ahead and his unfortunate luck.

Meanwhile, Alexis, who had not uttered a single word upon leaving the wrecked house, sat with her hands under her thighs staring blankly ahead. Several thoughts ran through her mind as she scrabbled to get a grip on herself_. Is it true? Is it even possible? No. It can't be... He's my dad. He can't die. _The girl slipped further and further into a trauma induced coma that only produced thoughts of absolute and complete disbelief. But as she seeded through every other possibility (he's at home, he flew to Tahiti for the weekend, he's writing in the Hampton's) and she rejected each case, she came to the conclusion that he was in fact dead. No, murdered.

_Why him_? she would repeatedly think to herself. _He doesn't deserve it. _To tell the truth the teenager was more scared than she had ever been in her entire life. She didn't want to be alone, but was terrified that her father had suffered a slow, agonizing death.

Realizing the group would be stuck on the road for quite some time, she finally spoke, making everyone twitch in their in skin.

"He was half of all I had," Alexis whispered.

Kate, who had been looking without seeing through the barred window, slowly shifted her gaze to the young red head. Her head throbbed with each breath and her stomach pooled with nerves every time her heart beat. Her hands, concealed inside the pockets of her coat, shook uncontrollably and her eyes, unbelievably, had a slight wild glint.

Beckett was a cop. Her training told her not to believe in what she first saw; that there were always (_always_) two sides to every story with limitless outcomes. That there was always a way. But every thought that coursed through her head told her to jump out of the stilled car, run down the highway between the other vehicles, and find a lonely, scum-infested alley to break down in.

But this is Kate Beckett we're talking about here. The likelihood of that happening is about the same as a hair dryer sprouting wings and flying away. It's never gonna happen.

She blinked once before answering, deliberately trying to give herself a chance to clear her head. "Alexis," she began, "He's half of what you have _left_. You're going to have to try a lot harder than that to get rid of him." She sucked in a deep breath. "Besides, we don't and can't know anything for sure until we have concrete evidence. You saw the body. It's unrecognizable. Okay?"

Her head, which had been angled at the floor, violently whipped up and to the side, facing the older woman. "Okay? Okay? He's dead and all you have to say is _okay_? I figured you of all people, Beckett, would be more upset than this! You act like I asked what the time was!"

Beckett internally shuddered. "Alexis, I'm calm because I know it's not him."

"Then explain why his phone was in that house let alone his shoes," she bit out, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Tears shown in the teenager's eyes and threatened to spill over as Beckett tried and failed to logically think her way through her proposal. There were several plausible ways that the body WASN"T Castle's, namely being the two key pieces of evidence, the phone and the shoe, might not in fact be his. But there was still the little thought in the back of her head, that when she'd tried to call the writer, there was no way she could've messed up his number. She had him on speed dial. The two men in the front remained quiet.

"That's right!" Alexis shouted, snapping Beckett out of her reverie. "You don't have an explanation because deep down inside, you know something's wrong!" Tears broke from the girl's eyes and began to trickle down her pale, shaking cheeks. She sniffled. "You're Beckett! You wouldn't have reacted the way you did unless you believed… that… that…"

At that particular moment, the teenager chose to break down into shuddering sobs, tears freely splashing to the turquoise cloth of her medical examiners scrubs, not bothering to continue speaking.

Beckett, caught completely off guard, didn't even get a chance to speak or to reassure Alexis that it hadn't been her father she'd seen crumbling and blackened on the floor. Even if Beckett had the chance though, she wasn't entirely sure she could've because the girl had hit the nail right on the head. Kate did think something was wrong.

So against her better judgment, knowing that her actions would confirm the girl's fears, Kate stretched out her arms and enfolded the girl in an embrace, her own throat choking up in the moment. But Beckett held back the emotion she so desperately would have loved to show. _Not until anything's for sure _she thought to herself.

The car began moving once again.

# # #

"And just where do you think you're going?"

I immediately stopped in place, my hand still outstretched, reaching for the door handle that lead to the morgue. My back automatically snapped into ramrod straight position, and I slowed swiveled to face the Nazi incarnate herself. Captain Victoria Gates.

I laced my fingers together to keep them from shaking (and not from nerves) and raised my eyebrows. "I thought that it would be fairly obvious, Sir," I said to the shorter woman standing before me.

"If you're trying to tell me," she said, folding her arms and erecting her usual scowl, "that you were going into that morgue, then try again."

"But Sir," I said, poker face slipping right off my countenance, "this is my case. I have to go talk to Lanie."

"Not only am I forbidding you to take one step into that morgue, but I'm sure as soon as you set one foot into the room, Lanie will kick you out herself."

"But Sir the dental records just came in-"

"Not another word, detective. You're too close. Even more so than usual."

"Look. I can handle myself," I protested.

She cut me off. "All I can see is an overworked, exhausted detective, with bags under her eyes that reach below her cheek bones. Go home, Beckett."

"But Sir-"

"Consider it an order."

With that, the Captain departed, no doubt stalking off into her office to think of new ways to ruin the days of the general population. _Forget this!_

Completely disregarding the previous conversation, I whipped around, already reaching for the door to the morgue, but found that Esposito and Ryan were blocking my way.

"Move," I said icily, making certain they got the full effect of my 'momma bear' attitude.

"Go home," said Ryan without breaking a sweat. "Sleep. It's no good working a case if you're running on coffee fumes."

"I'm fine," I objected. "Much to everyone's disbelief I am a cop and have in fact stayed up much longer than this under much worse conditions."

"Maybe," Esposito said, "but this is different. You don't need to see this. Even Alexis went home with Martha. We'll call if Lanie finds anything interesting."

"I'm perfectly fine. Now out of my _way_!" I tried to squirm my way between the two men, but much to my complete and utter shock, they were a lot stronger than they looked for being so short. A lot.

"We'll. Call," Esposito emphasized.

I groaned, nearly stomped my foot, nearly being the key word here, and spun on my heel, storming my way through the precinct. I angrily punched the 'up' button for the elevator and it, already being there, opened immediately. Upon reaching the street floor, I stomped out the front door and into the buzzing excitement of the sidewalk filled with New Yorkers rushing to get home.

My wobbling knees, cracking in half, finally gave out and I collapsed onto the steps outside the building, my hair falling in front of my face. I bent in in half, my forehead resting on my knees. _It can't be over. Not just like that. We didn't survive my apartment exploding, driving into the Hudson River, a nuclear bomb, and a tiger just to have you die in a damn fire! I didn't survive being shot just to find your charred ass in some crack house outside the city. You can't be dead!_

My breath left my lungs in a whoosh. Castle. Dead? Even the thought of it, finally starting to sink in, didn't sound right. The man, as childish as he may be, wasn't stupid enough to get himself killed. Even by accident.

I struggled to catch my breath and slow my heart, as my headache came back with a fury. _Castle is dead._ It literally did not compute, example one being the migraine.

I sunk back into the steps, my spine scraping against the concrete and my head tipping back, the hair falling from my face. "Castle," I said in what would've sounded like complaint, "Why couldn't you have died before…" _before I cared._ Not that Castle dying before would have been all that fantastic either it just… it hurt more now.

"That I am. Impossible to kill. We could make it my super hero catch phrase! Richard Castle: The Invincible!"

My head snapped to the right and low behold, there on the steps sat Castle in the flesh. My mind was moving extremely slow at this point. I had just come to terms with the fact that Castle maybe, sort of, kind of, a little might be dead. Maybe. And now he had the gall to just come show up in a public place?

"Well here you go," he shoved a Starbucks coffee into my frozen, shell-shocked hands. "Remember, only recycle the bottom."

Numbly, I shook my head.

"And now I really me must be off. Don't forget. Save mother Earth!" And before I knew it, he was gone; melted away into the crowd.

I took a deep breath and shook my head. "What just happened?" I whispered to myself. _Who the hell cares._

I jackknifed up and sprinted back into the precinct, practically jumping up and down in the elevator, and shoving the unsuspecting Ryan to the side of the morgue door. I barged in.

Lanie jumped, dropping a scalpel, and quickly set it back on the tray. Her expression took a turn for the worst upon seeing me and my more than a little disheveled state.

"Kate, you heard," she began, speaking softly and jumping to conclusions.

"Lanie, you'll never guess who I just…" I waited for her expectant reaction, but it never came. She just stood there with that pitying, sympathetic look on her face. "What?" I said.

"Kate, I'm so sorry. The dental records are a match. Our vic is Castle ."

** Alright, what's going on? Beckett claims to have seen Castle outside the precinct, but Lanie has the dental matches. Did Beckett really see Castle or was he just some strange, delusion brought on by grief stricken insanity? Could be either, but would I really be stupid enough to kill off our favorite adult child (Anyone seen the my strange addiction: I'm addicted to acting like a baby episode? Some people…) Any who, back to the cryptic questions. Who is the victim really? Is Castle dead? Is Beckett losing it? How accurate are dental records and how easy is it to access them (cough…cough). All will be answered, if there are ten reviews!**


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